"Warrior Spirit"

Chinese / Japanese Kanji / old Korean Hanja Calligraphy Wall Scroll

Close up view of the warrior artwork mounted to this silk brocade wall scroll

This is a special edition with my signature style. It has ivory silk brocade panels with accent lines at the top and bottom, along with a copper-colored silk brocade inner-frame directly around the calligraphy panel.

This Chinese character is "wu" (it's "bu" in Japanese, with the same meaning) which means warrior spirit or military, and it closely identified with Kung Fu (Gong Fu).

In fact, many will argue that a word made by combining "wu" with the character "shu" means Kung Fu. You may have heard of "wu shu" competitions.

If you go to your Chinese/English dictionary, "wu shu" is usually translated as "martial arts".

If you are looking for a gift for a friend who practices Kung Fu, this is it.

I have also seen this character painted on the walls of Kung Fu studios around the world, so if you practice Kung Fu, this can also make a great gift of honor to your master.

About the artist:

This calligraphy was created by Li Dan-Qing of Beijing. He's an older gentleman who has been involved with the art community of China, all of his life. Now in retirement, he creates calligraphy for us for sort of "hobby income".

About the materials and construction of this wall scroll:

The calligraphy was done using black Chinese ink on xuan paper (known incorrectly in the west as "rice paper"). The raw artwork was then taken to our Wall Scroll Workshop where it was laminated to more sheets of xuan paper, and built into a beautiful silk brocade wall scroll. Except for the use of a lathe to turn the wooden knobs, this wall scroll is virutally 100% handmade from start to finish (even the paper is made by hand).

The wall scroll that Sandy is holding in this picture is a "large size"single-character wall scroll.We also offer custom wall scrolls in small, medium, and an even-larger jumbo size.

Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days.Instead of drawing characters by hand, the new generation in China merely type roman letters into their computer keyboards and pick the character that they want from a list that pops up.

There is some fear that true Chinese calligraphy may become a lost art in the coming years. Many art institutes in China are now promoting calligraphy programs in hopes of keeping this unique form
of art alive.

Even with the teachings of a top-ranked calligrapher in China, my calligraphy will never be good enough to sell. I will leave that to the experts.

The same calligrapher who gave me those lessons also
attracted a crowd of thousands and a TV crew as he created characters over
6-feet high. He happens to be ranked as one of the top 100 calligraphers
in all of China. He is also one of very few that would actually attempt
such a feat.